


Sulking

by TheStageManager



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Jedi Apprentice Series - Jude Watson & Dave Wolverton, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Fluff, Gen, I'm running out of tags, Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Not Sulking, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Mess, Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn Is a Good Master, Qui-Gon Jinn Is a Good Teacher, Valuable Life Lessons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26334877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStageManager/pseuds/TheStageManager
Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi is once again sulking and self-flagellating over perceived failure. Qui-Gon is here to assure his padawan that he as done nothing wrong.
Relationships: Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 105





	Sulking

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tessiete](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tessiete/gifts).



Obi-Wan was sulking. Qui-Gon, truth be told, had no proof of this. However, his well refined Jedi Master Senses were tingling; his padawan was upset and that simply wouldn’t do. It had been an eventful day—there had been a kidnapped monarch, an attempted coup, a valiant rescue, and a harrowing escape from an exploding power station—however, all things considered, the mission had been a success and Qui-Gon would not have his padawan self-flagellating after the young man had helped prevent a civil war.

However, to confirm his suspicions, he would first need to _find_ the boy. This was no easy task. Their shared Diplomatic quarters on the planet _Averta’al_ were vast and lavish, and Obi-Wan had a rather remarkable ability to make himself unfindable when he so desired.

Luckily for the master, Obi-Wan’s abilities tended to decline when he was in a state of emotional distress, so it didn’t take too terribly long to find him curled up on the polished floor of the kitchen, half-heartedly picking through a bowl of puffed dust-corn cereal, sans blue milk. The young man didn’t seem to have noticed his master, so Qui-Gon, tucking his hands into his sleeves, remained silent just a moment longer, trying to commit the scene before him to memory. Obi-Wan, in his youth, had been somewhat of a glutton. Though he had grown out of the vice with age and temperance, Qui-Gon still found something comforting in the knowledge that the fine young Jedi Padawan before him was, and always would be, the same Obi-Wan he had raised.

“You are sulking,” Qui-Gon mused and watched, filled with a bittersweet fondness, as Obi-Wan—his face already turning a vibrant shade of reek red—scrambled to his feet, shattering the antiquated image of the spritely, gluttonous child he used to be.

“I am not sulking,” Obi-Wan assured quickly, setting the bowl aside and hiding his sticky, sugar-coated hands behind his back.

“No, clearly not,” Qui-Gon affirmed with a bemused smile. “I am, however, unfamiliar with this form of meditation. Would you be so kind as to teach me?”

If looks could kill, Qui-Gon would’ve been struck dead where he stood.

“I was not meditating, Master,” Obi-Wan huffed. “I was merely…” he paused a moment, searching for a sturdy half-truth to shield the remnants of his tattered pride and, unfortunately, came empty handed. “I was _not_ sulking, Master,” he reiterated instead.

“And may I ask,” Qui-Gon began, crossing the room and grabbing a handful of corn puffs from Obi-Wan’s bowl (much to the shock and irritation of the padawan, who made a sort of wheezing/squeaking sound as he physically refrained from protesting.) “what it is that you are _not_ sulking about?”

Obi-Wan, sticky hands still firmly tucked behind his back, used his elbow to nudge the bowl behind himself further, as if he could prevent anymore thievery by using his body as a shield. “I have said already, I am not sulking. Jedi do not sulk, master,”

“Then you, my young padawan, have never made the egregious mistake of eating a tart that had been reserved for dear Master Plo Koon,” Qui-Gon said easily, popping a piece of cereal in his mouth.

Obi-Wan’s eyes blew open wide, caught somewhere at the crossroads of mirth and wonder and horror. “One of Master Tahl’s tarts? The meiloorun kind?” he asked and, when Qui-Gon offered a curt nod, Obi-Wan could hardly keep the delighted, mischievous smile off of his face. “Master, no! You know how fond he is of those,”

“I assure you, Padawan, it was no fault of mine! I had no idea it was meant for him,” Qui-Gon huffed. He was, however, quick to change the conversation lest he be further indicted for his crimes against the Kel Dor master. “So then, Padawan, while sulking is not a widely encouraged behavior, it is certainly not a condemnable offense,”

The smile slipped off of Obi-Wan’s face the way water droplets might slide off the back of a duck. “I am not sulking, Master,” he reiterated once again, apparently well prepared to die on the hill he had claimed. However, upon seeing Qui-Gon’s flat expression, he was quick to change his tune and open up, if only a little. “I am… merely frustrated,”

Qui-Gon straightened up, pleased with his student’s acquisition, meager as it was. “While sulking is, perhaps, somewhat permissible, rumination, Padawan, is not the Jedi way. You must release your feelings into the Force, they serve you no purpose here,”

Obi-Wan frowned, finally removing his hands from behind his back and tucking them into his sleeves. “I am not ruminating, Master,” he protested, and Qui-Gon had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at his student’s resolute stubbornness. “I am… I am _contemplating,”_ the young man decided on at last.

“You are _sulking,”_ Qui-Gon said, rapidly growing increasingly exasperated.

“Master-“

“Obi-Wan, _enough._ Today has been a difficult day, I understand that. However, self-flagellation-“

“Master, I am _not_ self-flagellating. The power station-“

“The power station is irrelevant. We are not being held responsible for it’s destruction-“

“Master, please! Would you just _listen_ for a moment?” Obi-Wan cried out and Qui-Gon’s mouth snapped shut.

Obi-Wan’s hands fell to his sides and he clenched and unclenched them, twisting away so that he wouldn’t have to face his master. “Master, I have _failed._ Blowing up the power station had not been my intention. I am not an avid supporter of wanton destruction!”

Obi-Wan fell silent, likely await a response from his master however, Qui-Gon remained silent. Obi-Wan wanted him to listen, so he would listen.

The young man turned back around, just for a moment, trying to read his master’s expression. His eyes flickered back and forth, searching for forgiveness or condemnation however, there was nothing to be found. Sighing, Obi-Wan turned away once more and wrung his hands. “After we had rescued the princess, I had wanted to rewire the mainframe of the power station to send a subspace message to the Guard, to alert them of our position,”

“You got your wires crossed,” Qui-Gon observed. Obi-Wan glared daggers at him and he responded with a simple smile.

“I turned the power station into a bomb, Master,” Obi-Wan admitted, utterly defeated.

“Yes, and the explosion was quite successful in catching the attention of the Guard, who had no trouble finding our location,” Qui-Gon assuaged.

“But what if there had been people inside the building?” Obi-Wan protested.

“There were people inside the building, Obi-Wan,” Qui-Gon responded cheekily. “The princess and the two of us,”

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. “ _Other_ people, master,”

“But there weren’t other people in the building, Padawan,”

“Yes, but what if there _had_ been?”

“Milling about in hypothetical ‘what if’ scenarios will do you no good, my student. What if somebody else had been inside the building? What if they had died? What if we had failed? What if we had never been assigned this mission in the first place? What if I had never become a Jedi and taken you on as my student?” Qui-Gon paused a moment, shifting weight. “Obi-Wan… these are questions that do not _need_ to be answered. What has happened has happened. There is no sense in dwelling on the past. Live in the moment, padawan. Do you know why I tell you this?”

“To irritate me?” Obi-Wan asked and Qui-Gon reached forward to tug on his braid.

“It must be time for dinner, Padawan. You are becoming rather grumpy. _Hush,”_ the master growled. “No. I tell you this because _now_ is all we have. The past cannot be altered and the future cannot be known. Who is to say what will happen tomorrow? Perhaps tomorrow I will die, or you will die. But _today,_ I am here. You are here. And I think it would be a shame to waste _now_ worrying about tomorrow, when the time could have been spend focused on the people who are _here,”_

Obi-Wan was silent for a long time, considering this information.

“Obi-Wan,” Qui-Gon said, when his student remained silent. “While I would agree that, yes, perhaps your engineering skills need a bit of work, you did not fail. The explosion, as I said, served to alert the Guard to our position. The princess was rescued and civil war was prevented. These things are facts. They cannot be denied. Release your feelings of failure into the Force, young one. They will only hold you down,”

Obi-Wan bowed his head and, at long last, the tension in his shoulders finally eased. “Thank you, Master, for listening to me. And thank you for sharing your wisdom with me. I… I believe you are right,” he said at last, with a small smile. “And… I apologize for being so petulant,”

Qui-Gon couldn’t help the smile the quirked at his lips. “And do you apologize for sulking?”

“Master,” Obi-Wan began impishly, like the devil-child he was. “I can assure you that I was _not_ sulking,”

Once again, Qui-Gon reached forward and tugged on his padawan’s braid. “Perhaps our next lesson ought to be a discussion on the merits of _humility_ and the pitfalls of _lying,”_

Obi-Wan merely grinned. “If I might request, could we, perhaps, save that lecture for after dinner?” he asked, batting his eyelashes. “Meiloorun tarts would be wonderful,” he added with a smirk.


End file.
